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Telly Text #30: Dinner At 11 + Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: The Ride

'Dinner At 11'

Having been too tired to watch 'Dinner At 11' first time around, I saw a pop up on 4oD and decided to take the brave step in listening to 11 year olds discuss topics like love, politics, and life in general. 'Dinner At 11' puts together a bunch of 11 year olds as they leave primary school, and finds out their opinions in a dinner style setting. As they sip on their apple juice and eat some fancy food.
From the get go listening to these children talk about topics regarding relationships was extremely cringe worthy. To some, hearing about children holding hands and getting told off about it, might seem innocent. To me this is slightly creepy and makes for uncomfortable viewing. The topic of fashion did not help to ease the viewing of this show especially when one of the girls talk about going through a phrase of wearing short skirts and make-up.

The cherry on top for this train crash of the show was the political talk. Most of them vocalised their hatred towards David Cameron but one girl took her anger against the Conservatives to the next level by bring up Margaret Thatcher, who I am shocked she even has heard of. Her main reason for hating Thatcher was because her dad hated Thatcher. Now, I am not saying I disagree with her because I am not a fan of either of the two but she needs to grow a little more before I listen to her opinion on politics.

There are a few positives I have regarding this show. Firstly, there was a diverse range of children. In the beginning I assumed they picked all the stuck up clever children - but as we were allowed access into some of their homes, not all of them are upper class snubs. Just a few of them. Secondly, I love the fact they were so open even though quite a lot of the stuff they said was utter rubbish. Topics such as bullying gave the show some credibility as it showed children find bullying a big issue that is not being tackled and I agreed with all the points they raised on that topic.

Overall, this has to be one of the worse shows I have seen so far this year. The previous winner being 'Tom Daley Goes Global'....which I refuse to go into. Channel 4 is clearly trying to be creative and give us something different to watch. As they say they were ‘born risky’ - the Channel also lost a few brain cells at birth. Hopefully there is no second series, no catch up ten years times or anything of the sort as this show was just bad and needs to be locked up the television prison where no one can see it again.

'Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: The Ride'

Rewind back to last year and one of the biggest songs at the time was 'Thrift Shop'. I had the song as my ringtone and whenever it played on the radio or while I was out I would sing along, even changing my voice just to sing the chorus. Forward to today and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are one of the hottest duos at the moment, playing at big festivals and living the life. MTV is now treating us to an hour length documentary on their rise and the struggles they faced getting to the top.

Listening to Macklemore talk about his addiction to alcohol and drugs, I was a bit confused as to why he decided to drink eleven shots of vodka at the age of fourteen but addiction starts from somewhere. When he got to the age of twenty-two, the drug situation got worse - the turning point in Macklemore’s drug battle saw his father persuade him to go to rehab and get sober.

This documentary also allowed us to hear Ryan Lewis talk about his past, and let us see the guy behind the music. Ryan discussed how he found out about his mum being HIV positive and his two sisters near-miss with the virus. Since this experience, Ryan lives life to the fullest and always seems to have the backing of his family especially in his music career.

My favourite part of the documentary was hearing how Macklemore and Ryan Lewis met through MySpace and a simple friend request. From this friend request, they were able to see each other’s skills and form their friendship and give us the music we enjoy from this duo. It almost makes me want to accept the next friend request I get on Facebook but then I am far too judgemental to commit to that promise.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis did not need to do this documentary so early in their career but I am glad they did. From winning awards to performing with Madonna and Queen Latifah while one hundred gay and straight couples tied the knot on the Grammys, they seem humble and shocked by everything that has happened. After watching 'Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: The Ride' all I wanted to do is listening to 'Thrift Shop' on repeat.